08/16/13 08/16/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> if you look at the reports, even the disclosures that mr. snowden has put forward, all of the stories that have been written, what you're not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs. and listening in on people's phone calls or inappropriately reading people's e-mails. >> days after president obama defended the national security agency for not abusing its

surveillance powers, the nsa's own internal audit reveals the agency has broken its own privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times a year. then we go to cairo where the muslim brotherhood has called for a day of rage after more than 600 people were killed on wednesday. >> the one thing people will not stand for in the long term is to have this kind of regressive security state inflicted upon them. once the targets of this authoritarian apparatus moves away from the islamists and starts imposing itself on other parts of egyptian society, then perhaps,e might see, once again a popular uprising against that kind of crackdown. >> we will speak with sharif abdel kouddous in cairo and p.j. crowley, former state department spokesperson, who is called for the u.s. to suspend military aid to egypt and call the ouster of mohamed morsi a coup.

then, didn't eight-year-old spy for america? we look at how u.s. allies in yemen used a child the place electronic chips on the man he considered to be his surrogate father. days later, the man was killed in u.s. drone strike. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. brotherhoode muslim has called on supporters of ousted president mohamed morsi to join the nationwide day of rage today to protest the killings of hundreds of people in a crackdown that began with raids on two cairo sit ins. according to the health ministry, the death toll from wednesday's violence has risen to 638 with thousands more wounded. on thursday, the government authorized security forces to use live ammunition to defend themselves and public buildings. president obama responded to the situation in egypt from martha's

vineyard where he is on vacation . he condemned the violence, but stopped short of calling it a coup or announcing cuts to the $1.5 billion in aid to egypt's military. >> while we want to sustain our relationship with egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back. as a result, this morning we notified the egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise , which was scheduled for next month. going forward i have asked my team to assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the u.s.-egyptian relation. >> the state department spokesperson said the administration is reviewing aid to egypt and all forms. we will get an update from cairo with sharif abdel kouddous later .n the broadcast

the washington post reports the national security agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since it was given broad new spy powers by congress in 2008. in a separate post story, the leader of the secret court that supposed to oversee the spy program says its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on americans. we will have more on the story with alexander abdo after the headlines. reuters is reporting edward snowden began downloading documents related to widespread u.s. spying while working for dell last april, almost a year earlier than has previously been reported breed prior stories have focused on snow and subsequent three-month stint with contractor booz allen hamilton holding. snowden said that people associate with his father have, in his words, misled journalists into printing false claims about my situation. snowden said neither his father nor his father's lawyer nor his

lawyer's wife and spokesperson represent him in any way. in lebanon, a car bomb tore through a busy area in the southern suburb of the capital beirut thursday, killing at least 22 people. area is a stronghold for a shiite militant group has paula -- hezbollah. a sunni group claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks. thank you men expressed concern about israel's approval of two new rounds of settlement homes amidst ongoing peace talks with the palestinians. he made the comments during a visit to the west bank city of ramallah. > by israel's continue settlement activity east of jerusalem, settlement activity

[indiscernible] toward achieving peace. it is making a two-state solution impossible. >> the commission that issue sentencing guidelines to federal judges has unanimously voted to consider softening its framework for drug offenses. they said it would assess its own guidelines regarding prison terms based on certain amounts of drugs. in a statement, the commission said -- the attorney general eric holder signaled major shift on sentencing this week including instructing federal prosecutors to sidestep mandatory minimums for some drug offenses. a group sympathetic to syrian president bashar al-assad disrupted traffic on the

washington post website thursday. the breach saw some readers redirected to the website of the steering electronic army, the same group that claimed credit for hacking the twitter account of the associated press earlier this year. the issue stemmed from an infiltration of the ad network called out brain which the post uses to generate story recommendations for readers. cnn and time also use outbrain and reported more minor effects from the hack. on wednesday, the new york times website went down for about two hours, but the company officials cited technical issues from or to maintenance. the mid-t the pentagon has unveiled new measures to address the epidemic of sexual assault in the military. reforms do not address the key question of whether to remove the fate of sexual assault cases from the military chain of command. new york senator kirsten gillibrand and others want to rest the control for military

commanders, instead leading independent military prosecutors decided the case goes to trial. estimated survey 26,000 people were sexually assaulted in the armed forces last year. the number of actually reported sexual assaults for the pentagon's 2012 fiscal year was roughly 3400. of those, only 190 were center court-martial proceeding. ecuador has dropped a plan to preserve swaths of the amazon rain forest from oil drilling by having rich countries they do not to drill breed in a speech a saiday, president corre the plan to say parts of the national park had raised only a fraction of the money sought. a new report commissioned by the pentagon has found none of the 107 nuclear reactors in the u.s. are adequately secured against potential terrorist attack. the current level of security required of civilian run reactors fails to guard against

an onslaught i any more than a small number of attackers. among the most vulnerable reactors listed is one less than 25 miles from the white house. are endingefenders their occupation of the florida state capitol after 31 days. they entered the suite of florida republican governor rick scott three days after the acquittal of george zimmerman to call for the repeal of florida's stand your ground law. number ofclaimed a victories, including a promise from house speaker will weatherford to hold a hearing on the law this fall, although governor scott rebuffed their demands for special session. they have announced to register the amount of voters by which governor scott won the election in 2010. the group's executive director spoke thursday. >> and so it is now that i am proud to announce that our work and our power has grown too big for these halls.

and that it is time for the movement to continue. and that this is the last time i'm going to sleep on any floor. as we announced just last week, i would like to reaffirm our intent to register 61,550 voters in the state of florida. because we will indeed never forget. >> and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. vacation.from >> it is great to have you back from puerto rico. their loss is our gain. yesterday you into the funeral of bill lynch here in new york. can you talk about who he is? >> he was really an icon of the progressive democrats of new york city, now for more than 30 years.

he was a behind-the-scenes guy who organized campaigns and trained political candidates. at the memorial service, at the riverside church, it was packed with hundreds of people that included all the luminaries from new york politics and both ill and hillary clinton as well as al sharpton, jesse jackson, cumbersome and wrangle -- congressman rangel. it was an emotional farewell of a figure who really burst on the scene in 1989 when he masterminded the political campaign of david dinkins as the first african-american mayor of new york city. but he was also constantly putting forward progressive candidates. his most recent candidate was jon luther -- john lew. he helped him become city comptroller four years ago. >> and was also involved with president mandela.

>> he organized the trip of nelson mandela to new york city shortly after angela got out of jail. he has been a major figure and always behind the scenes person. he was never in the limelight youngways nurturing african-americans, latinos, asians and progressive whites to run for political office. >> the clintons were there? >> yes, and to see jesse jackson and al sharpton sitting side-by- side -- >> what did he say i'm out sharpton? rocks at one point he said come a i want to welcome president clinton and her husband bill. and the crowd laughed, indicating what sharpton expects to be the future -- >> bill lynch was a hard worker. the founder of orange and noble spoke about him? >> he noted that one time bill lynch called him one day urging

him to provide financial backing to a democrat running for the state cente senator. he hears an ambulance in the background and he says, get out of the way, that the cargo by review says, i am in it. he says, what you doing? he says, i am in the hospital. he said why are you calling me? >> he said i have nothing else to do, i am trying to get to the hospital. >> decent person, humble person . >> it is great to have you back. >> the washington post has revealed the national security agency is broken privacy rules have overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008. according to the nsa audit obtained in 2012 leaked by edward snowden, there were 2007 hundred 70 six incidents and the

preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. the audit only counted violations committed by the nsa's fort meade headquarters and other facilities in the washington area. most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of americans or foreign intelligence targets in the united states. in one case the nsa intercepted a "large number" of calls placed from washington when a programming error infused u.s. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for egypt. the report comes out less than a week after president obama told reporters abuses have not been committed at the nsa. >> if you look at the reports, even the disclosures mr. snowden has put forward, all of the stories that have been reported, what you're not reading about is the government actually abusing listening ins and

on people's phone calls or inappropriately reading people's e-mails. what you're hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. part of the reason they're not abused is because these checks are in place. those abuses would be against the law and against the orders of the foreign intelligence surveillance court. >> the washington post has also published a rare comment from reggie b walton. he said the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often government surveillance breaks rules that protect americans privacies. the nsa responded in a statement that read in part -- for more we're joined by alexander abdo. the response of the nsa? >> it is truly shocking they are

violating the surveillance laws thousands of times every year, effectively about seven times a day. in part because these laws are permissive. these aren't laws that impose meaningful restrictions. they essentially allow the nsa to collect vast amounts of information inside the united states and as we communicate internationally. the fact there are violating these very permissive laws is truly shocking. really disclosures undermine the intelligence community's primary defense of these programs, which is that there heavily regulated and overseeing. we know that is simply not true. congress is not been able to effectively oversee the nsa. now that we know the fisa court, the nsa is not able to -- in its own words, doesn't think it has the capacity to effectively oversee the nsa. the government has been claiming for years this is a regulated surveillance complex and in fact

the fox has been guarding the hen house for far too long and it needs to stop. ,> even with these revelations i'm interested to see if it indicates these are not delivery violations but inadvertent problems in terms of how they're gathering and sifting data, and that they're relatively small compared to the huge volume of what they're actually doing. do you buy that argument? >> for the past month the nsa has been using word games to defend itself when it talks about the consequences of these policies for americans privacy. use these words to obscure what is going on. the fact is, these laws allow the government to listen in on americans phone calls and to read americans e-mails in an extraordinary number of circumstances, and the government has not been forthcoming about that authority and are not being forthcoming now and they suggest these violations are minimal. these are thousands of violations every year and each violation could affect hundreds or even thousands of americans, but we still don't have the

basic facts. >> and the significance of the , 202,02 -- the error instead of monitoring egypt, which is 20, what does that mean? >> that means thousands of calls and easy were swept up into the nsa database when you're supposed to be targeting egypt abroad. >> did they get purged? >> we don't know enough about that story. there is not enough transparency. the public debate now is incredible and was instigated by whistleblowers, leaks. but the fact that we had to wait for those leaks to have this conversation is problematic. >> and the significance of u.s. reggie b waltonudge saying, we have to rely on the accuracy of information provided to us by the court, by the nsa. >> that is right.

we're letting the nsa police itself and now one of the consequences. it affects untold number of americans. if you look at what the government told the supreme court last year, they were defending the law that allows this dragnet surveillance of international communication. the primary defense of the government was, don't worry about the nsa, the secret court in washington is protecting the rights or privacy of the countless americans in the country for he is now the court itself is saying it doesn't have the capacity to review the government's claims that it is abiding by the law read it is truly shocking. >> and more than 2000 mistakes that the audit found are only in the washington, d.c. area breed people like edward snowden were working in hawaii as a contractor, so other parts of the nsa that were not in the washington area -- >> we still don't know the field

the full abuses of the nsa. the numbers could be significantly higher. each one of the incidences doesn't relate to just one person. one example was the sweeping enough d.c. communications instead of egypt communications, affecting potentially thousands of people. the number could be much, much higher, but we still need more disclosures for the government. if the administration truly welcomes the debate, they need to give the public the facts. >> the nsa is searching the content of virtually every e- mail that comes into workers out of the united states without warrant. you have written about this. >> the law that congress passed in 2008 gives the government essentially unfettered authority to read and listen to our international communications. now we know they're doing it with a dragnet by sifting through every single e-mail that goes into or out of the country. you simply don't need that sort of authority to defend america. the government should be

targeting terrorists, targeting wrongdoers, not discriminately surveilling americans inside the country. >> it was not clear yesterday if general james clapper, who we know lied to congress on this issue, would be the one that president obama would put in charge of the review of the nsa? >> the president promised an independent review of the nsa surveillance activities and news broke the national intelligence director might be the one overseeing that review. that would be to add insult to injury. we need an independent review and congress to get involved of these disclosures and the consequences for millions of americans, and that can't happen when we allow the nsa to police itself. the aclu representing edward snowden? >> i can't comment on that. >> i want to thank you very much, alexander abdo, for joining us, staff attorney at

the national security project at the aclu. when we come back, sharif abdel kouddous in cairo and we will be joined by p.j. crowley. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn now to egypt where members of the muslim brotherhood have called for nationwide day of rage today in protest to wednesday security crackdown that left at least 638 people dead and more than 3000 people injured. the violence on wednesday began when security forces raided tito protest camps in cairo said up to denounce the military overthrow egypt's worst freely elected president, mohamed morsi -- first freely elected president, mohamed morsi. >> security forces are are in the streets today blocking key parts of the city including tahrir square. we go to cairo to speak to democracy now! correspondent

sharif abdel kouddous. >> it is a tense day. there are calls for marches to go out from 28 mosques across the capital by pro-morsi groups and there is been a stepped-up deployment by the military with army tanks and soldiers blocking main thorough fairs, completely encircling tahrir not letting anyone in. there are already reports coming out of people who have been cityd, one is in a canal and the other near the delta. confirmed,ports are it does not bode well for the rest of the day as these marches just began three at ayres a very large gathering in central downtown cairo. deployed aseing well. the interior ministry yesterday authorized police and security officials to use live ammunition

against any assault on the state institutions and police and this comes in the wake of morsi supporters attacking the local government building in giza from a setting it ablaze and burning it down as well as attacks on churches run the country. >> sharif, this represents the worst political bloodshed, what happened this week in the modern history of egypt. do you get any sense among the supporters of morsi that more may then say that elections and democracy don't work, that they have got to turn to civil war and violence against the government? >> i think we are at a pivotal from a critical point in terms of what the internal debate is within the islamist movement, whether decisions will be. see whatemain to control the groups have over the rank and file anymore and you upwards of 600 people killed in a single day across the country

breed what is the response of that? we've seen these attacks happening on christian churches as the result of very divisive religious rhetoric, but it almost seems the security establishment, the police, the army as well as the political groups that supported the military's intervention, are almost trying to bait the islamists and provoke them into violence in order to justify repression, further crackdown, and push them completely outside of politics. so it is a very dangerous road we are going on in egypt. this slow-moving train wreck we have been on for some time now is looking or speeding up into a head-on collision. >> the new york times has a front-page piece that says many of those waiting outside the makeshift morgue talked of civil war, some blamed members of egypt's coptic christian minority for supporting the military takeover, who argued

openly for return of violence. one said the solution may be an assassination list. >> it is hard to tell where it is going. people talk of civil war and we have to make sure -- we are in a situation in a country like syria that has a lot of militias and a deeper sick arian issue -- sectarian issue. the real problem here lies with the police and the army. we could go to a more low-level insurgency like we saw in the 1990s with islamists committing terrorist acts. security crackdown that really stalled any efforts for reform of the state as well. that is the potential direction we are going. i think today will be an important day. the pro-morsi groups have nothing else other than taking to the streets right now. will they continue going into these kinds of protests or step them up in the violence they

have engaged in the last couple of days? we will have to see where it goes. we don't really know who is making the decisions. >> you mentioned the bulk of violence is coming from the military and the police, and yet the obama administration is still saying, basically, the president said yesterday he is some military exercises that were planned with no real effort by the united states government, which basically buys and pays for the egyptian military i'm a to cut off this huge military aid to those generals. >> so this is a continuation of u.s. policy. obama yesterday kind of scolded the military after this massive crackdown that it oversaw with them killing so many people by the police.

the last one held was in 2009. the $1.3 billion in aid that goes toward egyptian military was not even brought up by president obama. he said, we don't choose sides. but when you fund the military to that amount and have very strong ties, i mean, we have chuck hagel calling sisi every day, apparently. those things were not even discussed were brought up by obama. >> i know you have to get out to cover these mass protests today, this day of rage, two thanks. one, the response. and two, the vice president stepping down, the significance of this. the group that organized the petition campaign that began on the first that gathered millions of signatures. they were started by some grassroots activists.

one is the revolutionary socialists which was very anti- military, anti-supreme council of the armed forces and took to protests all the time. over the course of the last couple of months, they have completely backed the military line. there is no difference anymore. they have been co-opted by the security establishment and praised the use of force by security apparatus in the crackdown on wednesday, and they have called for citizens to form popular committees and protect state institutions today greeted -- today. that could bring more citizen on citizen violence. a verde was part of the interim government -- elbaradei was part of the interim government. his resignation reduced even further the sense of there was any credibility of the interim government.

there may be further resignations as well. it is very clear who is in were always was,'s was really, was the military three at a quick final point, turkey and egypt recalled their ambassadors, so that is probably diplomatic repercussion we have had so far and there may be more to come. >> that was turkey? >> and egypt did as well, from turkey. >> sharif abdel kouddous, democracy now! correspondent in cairo. we have a link to his latest piece for the nation and his twitter on our website democracynow.org. sharif, stay safe. we will put up in the reports he has up over the weekend as developers continue. crowley,guest, p.j.

former state department spokesperson. he is a fellow at the george washington university institute for public diplomacy and global communication. he joins us right now but first i want to play president obama's remarks on egypt thursday. announced the cancellation of military exercises with egypt, but stopped short of cutting off the $1.5 billion in aid. >> the united states strongly condemns the steps that are been taken by egypt's interim government and security forces. we deplore violence against civilians breed we support the universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest. we oppose the pursuit of martial law, which denies those rights as citizens under the principled security trumps individual freedom or that might makes right. today the united states extends

its condolences to the families of those were killed and those who were wounded. given the depths of our partnership with egypt, for national security interests in this pivotal part of the world and our believe that engagement can support a transition back to a democratically elected civilian government, we have sustained our commitment to egypt and its people. ourwhile we want to sustain relationship with egypt, out traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the street and rights are being rolled back. as a result, this morning we notify the egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise, which was scheduled for next month. going forward i have asked my national security team to assess the applications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the u.s.-egyptian relationship. >> president obama's first not

egypt to ring his vacation in martha's vineyard. from aowley with us former state department spokesperson. your comment on your former bosses remarks? >> the united states is in a very difficult situation. it does not have great influence with egypt. these are decisions being made in egypt and these are mistakes being made in egypt. though back two years when the arab spring started and the transition started, there was an understanding the march to democracy in egypt would be a difficult one, would take a long time, and would not be a straight line. obviously, i think it was a military coup. i think the united states should call it that. >> why do you think president obama refuses to call it a coup? you have his former presidential foe, john mccain, being sent by president obama, who says this

is a coup, but he won't say it. >> i think the united states is trying to figure out how to exercise whatever influence and leverage it can read -- it can read it does have a strong relationship with the egyptian military, but it has limits. i understand we've been trying to get egypt good advice and they generally have ignored that advice from the two in the first place to avoid any kind of horrific violence that we have seen this week. i think the calculation -- i understand the logic of it, whether you agree or not, is that maintaining this open- minded communication is because, obviously, you have to work to the end came back. the objective is to get act to civilian rule and to an inclusive democracy that is saw during the morsi government is a difficult task and always the days like we have seen me make that task even

more challenging than it was to begin with. >> when you say the influence of the united states is limited, i go back to the issue i raised with sharif abdel kouddous, the size of the u.s. aid to the egyptian military is so huge, that, clearly, our government saying we're going to cut off this eight unless you change the way you are dealing with a transition to democracy would have a big impact, within it, on egyptian military? >> actually, i think it will probably would've had a bigger impact on the muslim brotherhood than the egyptian military. you have a lot of agendas working their way through the middle east and the united states, quite honestly, is not the only actor here. you have a military situation and you have an economic crisis in egypt, and some of the gulf states like saudi arabia, qatar, have provided assistance to egypt for different reasons. the muslimupport

brotherhood. saudi arabia, to support the yes, $1 billion is a lot in a relationship that we have with egyptian military is a deep one. that said, the egyptian military is going to protect its own self interest and that comes at the cost of her relationship of the united states. what we have seen what they actions of the generals in the past several weeks, they're willing to put that at risk in order to preserve their sway on egypt going forward. $12he gulf states giving billion to $15 billion actually dwarfs what the u.s. is giving, the significance of that? >> it is. it is just like syria where there are multiple agendas going on. we have a desire for an endgame in syria. iran has its own interest as to saudi arabia. influentialund

country, but we're not the only your read >> p.j. crowley, famously resigned in 2011 after@m.i.t. graduate student why the united states government was torturing private bradley manning you responded by accusing the pentagon of being ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid in his treatment of manning. "wereid your comments intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discrete actions undertaken by national security agency's everyday and their impact on the global standing and leadership." >> what we say matters and when our words and actions don't match, the credibility of the united states is at stake. i think in the context of egypt, our promotion of democracy in the region has been severely damaged by our hesitation to

call a coup a coup. i certainly think, and sure you would agree, as you try to build a democracy in a country that has not experienced it before, what is the better foundation on which to begin democracy? is it an election? is it an election of a president who is governing nearly come and not expansively, or is it a military coup? i would argue the better course of action would have been to not only try to work with morsi to make us government more inclusive, but also to continue to work with the political opposition to prepare for a future election where morsi will have to defend its record -- his record. if he remains unpopular, that would suggest a different result in the next election. obviously, that is not the course the obama administration

is pursuing. in fairness, that is not the course the egyptian military has pursued and i'm obviously, the obama administration has decided to work within what has happened within egypt rather than calling it a coup. >> but switching to the issue bradley manning, also very important right now. at this point we are in the sentencing phase of the trial. court will resume today at fort meade, maryland. i want to go to president obama defending the military's treatment of bradley manning. >> private bradley manning, i am actually asking the pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and our meeting our basic standards. they are surely they are. i cannot go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with private

manning's safety as well. >> can you talk about this? it is the reason your forcibly the state department for you and do you regret your comments or do you feel they were appropriate given how bradley manning was treated, being ?tripped naked at night, etc. >> to be clear, i resigned from the state department, i wasn't asked to leave. i did so because having a public disagreement with the president of the united states -- i served at the pleasure of the president and i thought in light of our disagreement publicly, i could no longer effectively serve in my position as his foreign- policy spokesman. that was my decision and no one else's. i certainly stood by what i said. i thought the treatment of bradley manning in the brick at quantico, in my view, was a very necessary persecution. read the manning has admitted yelled the number of series --

radley manning has admitted guilt and i feel he should serve a significant sentence for his actions three at i did not support the prosecution's pursuit of the charge of aiding the enemy. i thought that was judicial overreach. but i certainly understood the treatment of bradley manning was affecting international opinion of the united states. the last thing the united states stayed was another controversy involving detention issues, even one involving one of our own soldiers. >> i want to play part of an exchange now bradley manning that happened between associated press reporter matt lee and state department spokesperson jen psaki when he asked her to comment on the verdict in the case. >> we have seen the verdict,

which i know just came out right before i stepped out here. i would be on that and refer you to the department of defense. no further comment from here. >> for the entire trial, this building had said he wouldn't comment because it was pending, it was a pending case. now that it is over, you still are not going to comment? wax that is correct. >> can i ask why? >> because the department of defense has been the point agency -- >> but these were state department cables. they were your property. >> we just don't have any further comment. i know the verdict just came out and i don't have anything more for you. >> are you working on a comet? if we have anything more to say, i promise everybody in this room and then some will have it. >> i am a little surprised you don't have any comment considering the amount of energy and time this building expanded

on assisting the prosecution. >> p.j. crowley, your comments y still notr agenc making a comment on the bradley manning case? >> i don't know instructions by the stategiven department, so i certainly would say from my vantage point, having gone through the wikileaks event at the state department, i can tell you there was damage done to the national interest, and more importantly, there were real lives put at risk because of the release of these diplomatic cables. since the entire archive is now in the public domain, you will recall there were a number of cases in these cables were diplomats somewhere around the world had talked to activists,

and then said strictly protect the identity because if revealed, their lives would be at risk. i can just a test to you that there were people whose careers were ruined, had been intended it -- intimidated, jailed, some of the been killed. you -- for those who say that bradley manning did no real damage to the national interest, i can tell you earnestly that that is not true. >> p.j. crowley, as we wrap up, your dad was the vice president for public relations with the boston red sox. i was just wondering as a person who you yourself, former state department spokesperson dealing with the press, your thoughts on john henry, the red sox owner eyeing the boston globe? he has quite a mouthpiece right now. >> i cut my teeth as an internet

the boston globe many years ago while going to college in massachusetts. it is very interesting. i do think there is a significant tradition of local ownership, of newspapers and understanding their importance to the community. the boston globe is a regional paper that serves all of new england. you have two contrasting aspects. john henry now rooted in boston buying the boston globe any of the grand family rooted here in washington, d.c. ceding control of the paper. andnalism is important having the resources necessary to do the kind of community- based reporting and broader reporting is vitally important to the american democracy. >> thank you very much for being with us, p.j. crowley, former state department folk

spokesperson. now he's a fellow at the george washington university. when we come back, we look at yemen. is the story of an eight-year- old boy who was given a chip to put in his surrogate father's coat, later that father was killed in the drone strike. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> week in today's show with a shocking new story out of yemen read the article is called, "did an 8-year-old spy for america?" it is written by gregory johnsen . in it, he writes the united

states was able to target and alleged al qaeda operative named adnan al-qadhi for an american drone strike after u.s. allies in yemen convinced an eight- year-old boy to place a tracking chip in the pocket of a man he considered to be a surrogate father. shortly after the child planted the device, a u.s. drone tracked and killed adnan al-qadhi with a missile. >> for more, we go to speak with gregory johnsen. candidate in the near eastern studies department at princeton university. >> this is heartbreaking and tragic story. anytime a little boys used as upon between different sides. the drone war in yemen is a very shadowy war, so this is a case where little boy was living in this village. he was taken in by this individual, a man named adnan al-qadhi. for a long time he was a

military officer. at a certain point, the u.s. felt this individual had become a leader in al qaeda, one of the imminent threats. allies in yemen, without the knowledge of the united states apparently, convinced this little boy to plant a tracking chip on adnan al-qadhi. he was then killed the day after president obama won reelection last fall. he was targeted and killed by drone strike. the story goes on and gets even worse because this little boy and his biological father who helped convince him to plant the chip on his surrogate father were then kidnapped by al qaeda. we believe his biological father was later executed. so this is the situation where the eight-year-old boy both lost his surrogate father and his biological father. it is tragic and heartbreaking. >> and there is a jihadist video

were both the father and the boy are confessing to what they had done? >> yes. there is a confession video that came out in april in which al qaeda put together -- it is a propaganda video and it has clips both of the boy and his father telling the story of what they claim to have done. >> who were the allies they got the little boy to plant this chip? >> this is yemeni intelligence, the people the u.s. works with on the ground. the reason i think this is so important is because we often talk about drones is this amazing piece of technology. we all know from reporting that scahill and jeremy scale of a others have done, drones are things that the u.s. continues to say we can get just the bad guys and no one else. ourproblem is, drones

technology which means they rely on intelligence from the ground. very weak andry, human intelligence on the ground in places like yemen. so they often rely on partners like yemeni intelligence like saudi intelligence, and these groups don't have the same moral and ethical framework that we often take for granted. the u.s. is really getting into bed with some very questionable people. >> and the whole issue of yemen's track record in terms of using children in war and combat? >> this is something the state department documents every year and his trafficking report. in 2008, congress passed a law, the child soldier prevention act. this is a law that is been in effect since 2010. basically, it says any country that the u.s. designates as using children in conflict, the u.s. cannot then provide literary training and can't provide military weapons.

this is something that impacts a lot of different countries, the president obama for the past three years has signed each and every year the law has been in effect, he has signed a waiver exempting yemen from that. yemen is the only country in the world that has received a waiver each and every year. >> in essence, that then allows yemen to do something like they did in this case an employee may-year-old. >> there's a little willful ignorance. this is one of those issues where an ethical and moral claim comes up against what u.s. considers to be a security claim, and he was on this site has decided, well, we know yemen does this, but we will sign a waiver and continue to support them because yemen is such an important country in our fight against al qaeda and terrorism. aqap is only growing as the drone strikes grow. >> this is only one barometer of

how strong it is, but the u.s. has been caring a strike since december 2009. -- has been carrying out strike since december 2009. the group was about 200 or 300 individuals at that time. the u.s. has been bombing for 3.5 years and instead of the group getting smaller, it has more than tripled in size, well over 1000 members today. senator susan collins back when john brennan was giving his confirmation hearing, senator collins asked brendan what i think is the important question. she said, look, if all kind is growing instead of getting smaller, shouldn't we reevaluate our approach to how it is we are fighting this group around the world? >> it is not just in yemen. he had the same situation in syria, increasingly again in a iraq and now egypt -- in and egypt.

i wouldn't be surprised if the situation egypt creates many more jihadist who recognizes the united states is financing the slaughter by the egyptian military. >> you look around the globe, north africa and the middle east, and it is a very frightening situation. we had a number of trained jihadist they got out of prisons in iraq. .> 500 people escaped >> and in india, the prison break and in pakistan. we see what is happening today in egypt with the day of rage. i think the obama administration has rightly claimed they have dismantle the organization in afghanistan and pakistan, but now the organization is much longer in yemen in libya and iraq and syria. >> talk about the closing of the consulates, embassies, diplomatic posts are out the middle east. this was unprecedented, still, in yemen.

>> the u.s. took the state department -- the state department said it took his staff out in abundance of caution. apparently, analysts intercepted electronic chatter between the head of al qaeda's global network and the head of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula in yemen. the problem is, intelligence analysts are essentially trying to put together -- >> do they each know where they are? >> i don't think it means that. i think it means they have indication that something that may be happening. we saw how many consulates were closed, that the threat itself was very vague. this is something that will continue to live with, particularly in the aftermath of benghazi. the united states is really going to have to determine where he goes on the risk management versus risk aversion. is entitled "the

last refuge: yemen." can you talk about the jihadist movement, al qaeda, yemen participating in the arab spring abdulprotest against saleh. >> most continue to say that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, this group headquartered in yemen, they continue to be the most active in the most dangerous note of al qaeda. i think they are correct pre-at this is an organization -- they on a bomb on a plane i christmas day, there was the underwear bomb 2.0 in 2012, which thankfully, they get an undercover agent working for western intelligence. in 2004,we have seen 2005 -- one of the most frustrating things for me and

for a lot of people is, look, the u.s. has more money. the u.s. has more men, better technology, better weapons. yet in a place like yemen, it appears to be losing ground. i think that begs a number of questions of how the u.s. handles this. >> the u.s. has launched one-to- one airstrikes in yemen, the vast majority drones, displacing pakistan as the epicenter of the covert air war -- so far this year. >> in the past two weeks, there have been nine or 10 strikes. the u.s. says they kill the four that they're looking for, but the problem is, they also killed 33 other people who are still struggling to be identified -- who we are still struggling to identify. it is great if you killed the guys are going for read no one in yemen is upset when a high- value target is killed. what they're upset about are the women and the children and the tribesmen and the civilian

casualties and that is when -- , thank you sonsen much. we will have a link to her book on democracynow.org. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

>> hello and welcome to "the health show." from heart monitors to hospitals, today we're looking at how good design can save lives. coming up in the program, how scientists on opposite sides of the world are beating bacteria